Slingshots and Shotgun Shells
by 4-Evah-Anonymous
Summary: A watchmen high school AU. Dan is a new kid and is determined to befriend one Walter Kovacs,who, at first, wants absolutely nothing to do with him. Light slash/bromance Dan/Walter. I have fixed chapter three's spelling & spacing errors!
1. Chapter 1 The New Kid

_(AN: Hai thar! This is my first fic so i'd really apprieciate it if it were reviewed...pweeeesse?_

_Disclaimer: If I owned Watchmen, do you think I'd be here?_

_Now enjoy~~~_

_-Alice3)_

Alot of kids dreaded their first day as a highschool freshman. They were afraid of being beaten up, stuffed in lockers, or garbage cans. Going home with a black eye or, more over, going home in a body bag. Some, despite this fear, were looking foreward to the learning experience. These few had been constently picked on because of this fact. Others concealed their nervousness by hiding behind masks of nonchalant, i'm-better-than-you attitudes and thick layers of make-up.

However none of these statements were true for one boy named Walter Kovacs. Walter was entirely apathetic about his first day at highschool if not for one thing. Edward. Blake. The two had never really seen eye-to-eye, and I mean that quite literally. Walter was a 'runt' as Blake, a very tall teenager, whom could easily pass for at least 21, liked to describe him, and Walter did his fair share of calling Edward quite a few...imaginative names on the side.

Edward Blake was, as previously stated, very tall, very strong, and very scary to all, accepting Walter. He had dark hair and dark eyes that seemed to laugh at you, silently and mockingly. He had also taken to being 'the school bully', which is the most common term for the stereotype that would enjoy laying a baby bird infront of a hungry cat just to hear it sing in panic for mercy. But when it was Blake's decision, mercy never came.

As Walter walked onto school grounds, battered bag over his shoulder, he caught sight of one Adrian Veidt. He was not very fond of the blond-headed PETA member, from his sickeningly sweet, condecending tone-of-voice to the way he flaunts around his parent's money in an attempt to gain respect. Sure people followed him for it, but obviously, Veidt didn't understand the disdinction between the two.

Adrian was currently talking to a girl named Laurie...Laurie...something with a "J". Damn. Walter could never remember her last name. Oh well. He didn't excactly care to, Either. He didn't, unlike almost every other male in the god damned school, see her as desirable in any way, shape or form. A girl like her, with all the physical attention she got, would most likely turn out a horrid, bloated, whore, dieing early from a sexually transmited desise or an overdose on diet pills.

He walked directly past them, blowing off Adrian's curt greeting and Laurie's look of disgust. He looked down at the smudged, torn and wrinkled peice of paper that was his schedual. He had math first. In room 43E. The E building was on the upper level of the school so if he went there now, he could most possibly snag one of the seats in the back. It wasn't that he didn't like to pay attention, it was just that he didn't like being to close to people if he could avoid it.

As he entered the room he noticed three things. One, the lesson was already scrawled on the chalk board. Two, there were three other people in the room. The teacher, Mr. Randers, Jon Osterman, a creepy sophmore who never seemed to talk to anybody, and someone whom Walter took to be a new kid. Walter went to go sit in the back, when the rather pudgy teacher with a large black mustache called to him in a rather interesting accent,

"Hey! Fill the front seats first, please!"

Walter wanted to hit something.

But all the same, he did as he was told. He sat beside the rain speckled windo and glanced out. He turned his head to see the new kid holding out his hand for a hand shake. He had brown hair and a large smile on his face. He wore glasses that were nearly as rain speckled as the window which suggested he, too, had walked to school.

"Hello!" He said prompting his hand for a shake again, after Walter did not take it the first time. "My name is..."

**TO BE CONTINUED! **_(AN: Aren't I just evil?)_


	2. Chapter 2 Eddie Blake

_"Hello!" He said prompting his hand for a shake again, after Walter did not take it the first time. "My name is..."_

"...Daniel. Daniel Dreiburg."

Walter eyed Daniel's outstretched hand wearily. He didn't like it when people touched him. It made him feel sick. Dan stared at him expectantly with large, chocolate brown eyes that were ever more magnafied by his large, round glasses.

Walter scowled and swatted his hand away. "Walter Kovacs." He growled in a rough voice that sounded like he had swollowed glass.

Dan's face paled at the sound of Walter's voice reached his ears. It was quite the frightening sound. Still, Dan couldn't help but be intregued by the short, extremely skinny, red haired boy that sat beside him now. Dan made up his mind right then.

_I __**will**__ get him to shake my hand. _

Dan set his back pack on his desk and sat down. He had never been to New York before in his life but after his mom divorced his dad he went here to live with her. Dreiburg (or rather Ms, now.) was a nice lady, but far too afraid of upsetting Dan to set any real bounderies. Not that Dan ever did _anything_ bad, but as her sister, Aunt Cynthia, told her all the time, 'boundries are needed to have a functional home, honey.'

Dan's father, Richard, wasn't a very good father. He had a serious gambling problem, which nearly cost them their two bedroom apartment on several occasions. Dan didn't hate his father. He didn't think he could hate anyone, really. At least, not as much, Dan realized, as Walter could. He noticed the pure disgust radiating off Walter as a tall, frightening, dark haired teenager entered the room.

Edward Blake grinned around, first at Jon, who was completely indiffrent to his prescense. Then at Dan, who gulped and shrank back in his seat. Finally at Walter who matched the grin with a vicious glare. Eddie came over and looked down at Walter,still grinning like the cat that ate the canery.

"Hello there, runt." He said, the scent of recently smoked cigarettes, wafting from his mouth to Walter's nose.

"Brush your teeth, Blake." Walter retorted cooly.

Edward chuckled and then tangled a large hand in Walters crimson hair. He threw him out of his chair and sat down. Walter landed hard on his side and let out a grunt of shock mixed with pain. Dan gasped and stood up. He went over to Walter and grabbed his arm to help him up.

"_Do. Not. Touch_." Walter hissed venomously.

Dan rolled his eyes and pulled him up anyway. "Come on. Are you okay? Should I take you to the nurse's office?" He asked laying a hand on Walter's shoulder when the smaller boy was standing again.

"No need." Walter replied grabbing his bag and moving to the back of the room. "And what part of '_Do not touch_' do you not understand?"

Dan took no heed of Walter's hostility and picked up his own bag, moving to the seat beside Walter.

To Walter, Daniel Dreiburg could use a few lessons on what 'unwanted company' ment. To Dan, Walter Kovacs could be his first friend at this new school.

But not if Walter has anything to say about it.


	3. Chapter 3 Lunch Time?

**oh...my...mangoes...I'm back! I'm not dead! And YES! I'm picking this up again! I hope your happy! I FIXED THE SPACING AND SPELLING ERRORS!**

Math, being one of Walter's least favorite subjects, not to mention the first class of the day, went on pitifully slowly.

Algebra 1 was, in a word, pointless. Walter doubted highly that someone like him would ever wind up having to 'write an equation to show the sum of twice a number and 31.' or 'solve an algebraic expression through order of operations' in the real world. Hell, where he lived, he'd be lucky if he lived to see the real world. Not that that mattered.

The teacher decided to assign them a worksheet. And partners. Much to the detest of the red head. "put your desk together with the person next to you and begin working."

Daniel looked over at Walter and smiled pleasantly.

Walter avoided eye contact pointedly as the new boy slid his desk over next to his. "so, what we're supposed to do is go through and solve these by order of operations, right?" Daniel's voice was pleasant enough. It had a hint of hopefulness and a child-like naivety.

Walter wanted him to go away.

"hurm." was the only response that he gave and looked down at the page that had been passed to him. "would rather work alone."

"o-oh...well, uhm..." _very eloquent, Dan._ the bespectacled boy thought to himself. "we need to work together today, so..." he searched the paper for something to steer the conversation to a less unfriendly note. "how about this one? 32 plus 6 squared minus 14 multiplied by 3."

Walter frowned. Ugh. Math.

He looked down at the worksheet. It was numbered up to 30 and the problem that Daniel had chosen was number 18. "suppose it's fine. Don't really care what the answer is though."

Dan's face fell. "why not? I know it's the first day but..."

"that is not the reason."

Walter watched the boy's magnified eyes blink in confusion. "what is...?"

The corners of the smaller boy's thin lips twitched downwards. "...not your business, Drieburg."

And with that, he stood up seconds before the obnoxiously loud bell rang. He slung his battered brown messenger bag over his shoulder and walked out, leaving Daniel sitting there with an empty desk and an unfinished worksheet, blank except for the name of the surly redheaded male.

-.-.-.-.-

Walter breathed a sigh of relief once he was out of the classroom.

However, that was short lived when he saw the collection of other people pouring out of doors into the hallway for passing period. Walter was never good at handling crowds. They made him nervous and shaky due to all the overlapping noises and accidental pushes and shoves. As he walked as calmly as he could to his next class, he felt panic bubbling up within him as shoulders bumped his and voices rose in volume in his ears, drowning out any form of thought. He was shaking like a leaf when he reached room F16. He moved inside quickly to escape the crowd.

The plaque on the wall read 'Catherine Genovese: English 9'

He frowned and looked around. Walter wasn't comfortable around or fond of women. They all made him think of his mother and that...was not a good thing by any means.

"well, your here very early. Please, take a seat if you like." The voice of Ms. Genovese made him jump. He looked to the source of it. In the back corner of the room, a young Italian woman was seated at a large metal desk. On the desk sat a computer and a box of books. She gave him a smile and gestured to the box. "lucky you! You get first pick of the books. Most of them are falling apart but since you're early you can get one of the good ones."

Walter approached her desk nervously and picked out the book in the best condition. It was a copy of the script of 'Romeo and Juliet'.

His stomach dropped.

He knew the play. He had read it in the seventh grade in the school library on one of the days when he couldn't bring himself to go home. He turned away from Ms. Genovese without a word and went to take a seat. "wait! What's your name?" she asked politely, taking out her role sheet.

"Kovacs." he replied simply, taking his seat. He set his backpack down and dug through until he found a small, leather bound journal. He took out a ballpoint pen and began to write. 

_Walter's journal, September 12th-_

He was interrupted by the bell ringing and the rest of the class filing in.

Adrian Veidt was one of the first inside. His hair was fluffy, shiny and to Walter, obviously bleached. His skin was as flawless as ever and he wore black 200 dollar jeans and a 'meat is murder' shirt.

Walter could barely keep down the gag he felt at the sight of him. He reminded him of one of the Barbie dolls Laurie used to play with in elementary school. Manicured plastic perfection. It made him sick. At least he could say one thing for Veidt. He wasn't stupid. And that was more than he could say for most. Walter may not like him, but he was smart.

Adrian strutted his way over to him and greeted him with a polite, "hello, Walter."

which he _politely_ ignored.

He saw Veidt's eyes roll as he took the seat in front of him. "you can't just ignore everyone forever."

"just ignoring you is enough for me." Walter growled in response.

The rest of English class was spent doing just that.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Walter moved to his next class, physics, which he didn't even sign up for. He was placed there because a science class was required. He noticed that he was the only freshman in the entire class and one of the three underclassmen.

Jonathan Osterman sat in the front of the class.

That wasn't a surprise. From what Walter had seen all of his classes were either college preparation or advanced placement. He had heard him talking to a girl named Janie Slater, saying that he wanted to be a physicist.

Walter had no such dreams. He knew that the only reason he was even still in school was so that he didn't have to go home.

He retrieved his journal from the bottom of his bag and continued to write from where he left off. 

_the start of another school year. In high school now. Will end up face-down, dead in the gutters, soon enough. One more added to this city's body count. Until then, I'll pretend that I'm like these people as best I can. Pretend I have hopes. Pretend I have a future. But really, not many of us do. Because we are not invincible. Bad things don't just happen in the news. There is no one that will save us._

The class goes on. Walter keeps writing, alone with his thoughts. 

_if only we had a watchman._

-.-.-.-.-

Lunch time was the main thing that Dan was dreading. Most everyone here had probably known each other for years and here he was, intruding on their social order.

He looked around fixing his slightly crooked glasses. A very pretty girl with long brown hair and a mole under her eye beckoned him over with a wave of her hand. He felt a blush rise to his face and he looked around for someone whom she may have been waving to instead.

There was no one.

He swallowed and walked over to her table slowly. He was in no position to pass up friends.

Once he sat down, he learned that her name was Laurie and the blond boy next to her was Adrian. They chatted a bit about their days and Dan's old school and their families. Dan didn't even notice the flash of crimson hair weave it's way out of the cafeteria after grabbing and apple.

Walter moved quickly through the hall with his one-item lunch.

He slipped into the men's room and went into a stall, sitting on the lid of the toilet. He locked the door and took a bite of his apple. He hated doing this but, it was the only way he could eat his lunch in peace.

That is, until the door opened.

Walter pulled his feet up to hide his presence until he figured out who it was. He watched two sets of feet stumble back towards the wall, one wearing sneakers the other wearing high heels. Noises of passion filled the room and at this point Walter, feeling sick to his stomach, interrupted.

He unlocked the door and walked out, giving the couple a look of disgust. Not to his surprise, Laurie was glaring at him from the arms of one of her many boyfriends. "freak." she spat.

"am not the one making out in a men's room."

With that he left the pair to their own devices.

Oh, how he wished this day would just end.


End file.
